"Tantra - Mysticism"

    Tantrism has been suggested as a cure for India’s cultural ills. One such ailment is the hypertrophic puritanism of Indian, especially modem Indian, society. The erotic sculptures of Khajuraho, etc. have thus, as we have seen earlier, bothered most modem Indians. This is because they have become alienated from the sophisticated concept of drishti-shuddhi, which underlies these erotic and other depictions of life, and whereby the devotee empties his mind before entering the garbha-griha. Further, the ithyphallic representation of Siva is similarly really an indication of the state of desirelessness achieved in yogic samadhi, and the “divine” is to be seen in every phenomenon, especially in those situations like coitus that affect one most intimately. Thus, one of the most remarkable achievements of classical Indian sculpture is the serenity depicted on religious images, as witness the Buddha images; this is perhaps due to the predominantly numinous, “other-wordly" orientation of Indian culture, which has sought freedom from the human condition in mystical union. Eliade has called this union “enstasy” to denote the joy or ananda experienced in it. The fascination of Western youth for pseudo-Indian cults like Krishna Consciousness is an indication of this human need for ecstasy, however bizarre and spurious these cults may be.

    We have already seen that mysticism is the quest for union with the theologically defined ground of being. India has two dozen or so schools of meditation which cater to this quest. Tantra is one such school, which uses the laya-yoga methods but adds the heretical element of ritualized union with female initiates. The Indian tradition defines life as suffering, and postulates yogic samadhi as emancipation or redemption. Yoga does indeed generate an “irreversible poise and inurement to the vicissitudes of life”. It generates a satisfying sense of identity, and thus promotes personal autonomy.

    The Tantric route to personal autonomy is, however, widely viewed with suspicion. “Fun is out”. A few years ago, in fact, a Tantric chakra or group was broken up by the police in Banaras. To understand the reasons for this hostility to Tantrism, let us now take a closer look at the pathological puritanism of Indian society.

     The English-speaking elite, which articulates the official Indian world-view, has become alienated from the sophisticated aesthetics of classical Indian culture. We have noted that this elite articulates an obsolete Victorian morality, imbibed from the British missionaries and colonial administrators. Indian society is, therefore, highly authoritarian and patriarchal. Women are suppressed, and the Indian male is afraid to show tenderness. This is of course also because of the Indians’ magical fear of loss of semen, which loss is believed to impede the quest for moksha. As a result, Indian society frowns upon the enjoyment of life. The scriptures do speak about autonomy, but this autonomy is only meant for the avatar or culture-hero like Krishna.

    In pleasant contrast the matrifocal societies like Assam, Bengal, Orissa and Kerala are more open. The position of women is much better here than in other Indian societies. It is, therefore, perhaps not surprising that Tantra has flourished in such regions, because such open societies are more amenable to hedonistic experimentation.

    Western society is also very hostile to such personal experimentation. R. D. Laing and Thomas Szasz have pointed out that Western societies tend to label deviant behavior as insanity. These writers have shown, on the contrary, that there is really no such thing as "mental illness". Maslow’s interest in self-actualization, as also modem radical trends in psychotherapy, indicate that Bharati may be right when he suggests that mysticism can be very good therapy.

    In sharp contrast, the "madness" exhibited by mystics has always been given positive value in Indian lore. The songs of Ramprasad for instance glorify such "mad" behavior. They sing of the joy of yogic samadhi, and Indian scriptures call samadhi the parama-siddhi, i.e. the highest of the eight or ashta-siddhis of yogic ideology. Even today mystical experience generates personal charisma for the Indian mystic. Modem India is in fact named after the sage Bharata, who wandered about alone, immersed in his repeated samadhi-states. This acceptance of deviant behavior is also shown by the fact that Tagore used Baul imagery in many of his poems.

    Further, the joy of samadhi is beyond even sensual pleasure, as the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad pointed out, and thus should be perfectly acceptable to society. The problem, however, is that the mystical experience makes for personal autonomy, and the mystic tends to resent the control of society. Mysticism thus becomes illicit, and more especially antinomian techniques of mysticism like Tantra.

    We may also note here that the anthropologist Norbeck has remarked on the role of play in religion, especially in the "rites of reversal” found the world over. And in that context, it is interesting to refer to the traditional Hindu concept of lila, which views every phenomenon as “divine play", which in other words intuits the numinous in every phenomenon.

    In the Indian tradition, the saint who has achieved mystical union is above the norms that rule society. This license can rightly be interpreted by the mystic as permission to lead his life as he sees fit, without heeding philistine social caveats. Such a life is hedonistic, bearing in mind that hedonism can be related to any activity, whether Tantric experimentation or devotion to intellectual pleasure. After all, viewed from the perspective of modem ordinary-language philosophy, the “good” man is only a person who is at ease with himself and with society.

    In short, mystical union leads to personal autonomy, and Tantra is one such mystical technique. It, therefore, deserves serious, and positive, scholarly attention. It is very much a Great Tradition parampara, which has survived into modern times, and it could indeed be good psychotherapy for modem India’s cultural ills. At the very least, it can be a cure for the boredom that best modem man.